1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an interactive pressure support system and to a method of treating a breathing disorder using same, and, in particular, to a system that provides a pressure therapy to a patient while also providing an interactive capability so that the patient can answer questions or perform tasks that ascertain the effectiveness of the pressure therapy in treating the patient's breathing disorder.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many medical ailments that are diagnosed and/or monitored using a questionnaire, survey, or cognitive test taken by the patient. For example, a common method to determine whether a patient suffers from a sleep disorder, such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), is to measure the patient's sleep propensity. The patient's sleep propensity and/or changes in the sleep propensity can also be used to determine the severity of the disorder and/or monitor the changes in the patient's condition. Conventional techniques for measuring a patient's sleep propensity include the use of the Epworth Sleepiness Score (ESS), the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire (FOSQ) and the Berlin questionnaire. The ESS is determined based on the patient's retrospective reports of dozing behavior in a variety of situations commonly encountered in normal daily life. These retrospective reports are elucidated from the patient via a series of questions. The patient's responses to these questions are tabulated and used to determine the ESS to evaluate his or her sleep propensity.
Currently, the Epworth Test and FOSQ are typically administered on paper. To do so, the written test must be physically supplied to the patient and collected after the patient completes the questions. The test administrator manually tabulates (or uses a computer to tabulate) the responses provided by the patient and calculates the ESS or other score based on the patient's responses. It can be appreciated that the administrative requirements, such as the distribution, collection, time stamping, tabulation, scoring, storing and record keeping, required by this conventional testing technique place a significant burden on the test givers. This burden increases with the number of patient's taking the test as well as the number of times the test is administered to each patient. Typically the same patient will take the Epworth test multiple times during his or her treatment in order to monitor the effectiveness of the treatment therapy. It can thus be appreciated that patient follow-up to determine, for example, the effectiveness of a therapy intended to treat a sleep or breathing disorder, is a relatively expensive and burdensome process.
Another conventional technique that measures a patient's reaction time and cognitive alertness, which are generally understood to be indicative of a patient's sleep propensity, is the Vigilance test. This test is typically administered using a personal computer (PC) and requires that the patient provide responses via the input devices associated with the PC to displayed indica. The patient's reaction time in providing the response and/or the accuracy of the response to the displayed indica are measured and stored to determine the patient's level of alertness. For example, the patient is shown a recognizable object on the PC display, and the patient's reaction time in identifying the object and the accuracy of the identification are measured.
Because this test typically requires a PC to administer, it can only be administered at a facility where an appropriately programmed PC is located, which requires that the patient travel to a place where such a PC is located. Alternatively, an appropriately programmed PC can be provided to the patient. However, this latter alternative represents a significant cost in furnishing the PC to the patient and requires training the patient on the use of such a relatively complicated device. It can thus be appreciated that either alternative for administering the Vigilance test represents a significant burden on either the patient or the test administrator.